Feasting on the Word Worship Companion: Liturgies for Year C, Volume 2: Trinity Sunday through Reign of Christ

By Kimberly Bracken Long

Based on the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), Feasting on the Word Worship Companion: Liturgies for Year C, Volume 2 is an invaluable aid that provides liturgical pieces needed in preparing for worship each week. Written and compiled by a team of eleven ecumenical and seasoned liturgy writers under the creative leadership of Kimberly Bracken Long, this resource offers a multitude of poetic prayers and responsive readings for all parts of worship and is meant to complement existing denominational resources. In addition, the weekly entries include questions for reflection and household prayers for morning and evening that are drawn from the lectionary, allowing churches to include them in their bulletin for parishioners to use throughout the week.

During times of the year when two different tracks of Old Testament texts are offered by the RCL, this resource offers an entire set of materials for each track. Also, a CD-ROM is included with each volume that enables planners to easily cut and paste relevant readings, prayers, and questions into worship bulletins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Release date: Mar 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781611643091

Book preview

Introduction

The Feasting on the Word Worship Companion offers language for the church’s worship for every Sunday and holy day in the Revised Common Lectionary for Years A, B, and C. This second volume provides liturgy for Year C, Trinity Sunday through Reign of Christ. It is intended to serve as a supplement to the liturgical resources of denominations and not as a substitute for any of those fine works.

The texts herein were written by people from five ecclesial bodies who share similar convictions about worship and its language, yet pray with distinct voices. Because the writers come from a range of Protestant traditions, the attentive reader will notice some differences in theological background; in every case, however, these texts are grounded in deep and careful theological reflection. We seek to offer liturgy that is accessible yet elegant, in words that are poetic but not overwrought. These texts are written for the ear; we hope they are easily spoken, and their meanings quickly apprehended, in order to encourage full and rich congregational participation in the church’s life of prayer.

These words are rooted in Scripture, as the church’s liturgies have been for centuries. Using the Revised Common Lectionary as a guide, the writers of this volume offer words for worship that do not merely spring from their own imaginations but are grounded in the Word of God.

What This Book Includes

—Prayers and other liturgical texts—from Opening Words to Blessing—for every Sunday and holy day from Trinity Sunday through Reign of Christ (Year C)

—A collection of greetings to be used at the beginning of a worship service

—Thanksgiving for Baptism, for use at the beginning of a worship service or for reaffirmation of baptism

—Prayers for Communion, or Eucharist

—Questions for reflection on the texts for each Sunday and holy day

—Morning and evening prayers for household use, to be prayed by individuals, families, or groups, based on the week’s lectionary readings. (These prayers are written in both singular and plural, so adapt them as needed.) These may be distributed throughout a congregation for use during the week as a way to continue reflecting on the Sunday texts.

—A CD-ROM, which enables worship planners to copy text and paste it in the worship bulletin. Permission is granted to reprint individual prayers and liturgical texts for worship provided that the following notice is included: Reprinted by permission of Westminster John Knox Press from Feasting on the Word® Worship Companion. Copyright 2013.

Eucharistic prayers are provided in a separate section in acknowledgment that not all Christian churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. In addition, one prayer for general use is provided along with prayers for All Saints and Reign of Christ.

How to Use This Book

One may use this book in a variety of ways. You may use the texts just as they are, or you may adapt them for your context. While new texts are offered for each Sunday, there is value in repeating portions of liturgy so that people might become familiar with them. When worshipers are able to speak the same set of words over a period of time, they are not continually adjusting to new ideas and patterns of speech. You may, for example, use the same prayer of confession for a season, allowing the people to enter more deeply into that prayer over time.

Although a basic fourfold pattern of worship is used here, the elements of worship may not be arranged in the same way they appear in your own church’s order of worship. This is not intended to privilege one tradition over another, but simply to arrange the elements in a way that will look familiar to many who use this book.

You will notice that these texts are arranged in sense lines—that is, they look more like poems than paragraphs. This is intentional. The eye can pick up phrases quickly, enabling worshipers to pray them with greater understanding. So, if you reproduce any of these texts, please retain the sense lines. This layout on the page also helps leaders to better speak the texts so that they can actually proclaim (and not just read) the texts, while maintaining eye contact with worshipers.

In cases where a congregational response is used, instructions are often included that will allow the prayers to be led without printing them in their entirety.

This book is full of words. Worship, however, does not happen on a page. As you use these texts, do not just read them. Pray them. Spend time with the words and make them your own so that you may lead with authenticity, wisdom, and a true sense of prayer.

A Word about the Lectionary

During Ordinary Time, or the season after Pentecost, liturgy is provided for both the semicontinuous and complementary streams of the Revised Common Lectionary. Each of these tracks uses the same epistle and gospel reading, but the Old Testament and Psalm lections are different. The semicontinuous track allows congregations to read continually through a book of Scripture from week to week. In the complementary track, the Old Testament readings are chosen to relate to (or complement) the Gospel reading of the day. In both cases, the psalm is understood as a response to the Old Testament reading. Liturgical resources for the Season after Pentecost will appear in the second volume of each year in the lectionary cycle.

Since the numbering of the Sundays after Pentecost varies from year to year, the designation of Proper is used here, as it is in the Feasting on the Word commentaries. It can be confusing to navigate the various ways churches designate Sundays; a handy resource for viewing all those labels in one place can be found at http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/, a user-friendly site provided to the public by Vanderbilt University.

Different Voices: The Ecumenical Nature of the Project

Each writer comes to his or her task having been formed by a particular liturgical tradition. We are Methodist, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian, and Lutheran, with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Working as a team, we chose elements of worship that are common to all of us, as well as some elements that are particular to one church but not necessarily to another. Presbyterians, for instance, insist on including prayers of confession and prayers for illumination that invoke the Holy Spirit. Lutherans and Episcopalians expect a prayer of the day and include prayers for the departed in the intercessions. Lutherans also commonly use language about law and grace, and declarations of forgiveness sometimes refer to the ordination of the presider. These particularities were retained in order to preserve the ecumenical character of the book.

We use a variety of ways of praying but a consistent pattern of worship elements for each Sunday in the Christian year. Feel free to adapt the forms, change the words, or choose what is best suited for your context.

Who We Are

Just as this book is intended to serve as a companion to Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, we seek to be companions along the way with those of you who plan and lead worship.

The core team of writers includes:

Kimberly L. Clayton, Director of Contextual Education at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

David Gambrell, Associate for Worship in the Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Louisville, Kentucky; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Daniel M. Geslin, Pastor of Sixth Avenue United Church of Christ, Denver, Colorado; United Church of Christ

Kimberly Bracken Long, Assistant Professor of Worship, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

L. Edward Phillips, Associate Professor of Worship and Liturgical Theology, Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, Georgia; United Methodist Church

Melinda Quivik, Liturgical Scholar, Houghton, Michigan; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Carol L. Wade, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Lexington, Kentucky; Episcopal Church

Other contributors include:

Jennifer Carlier, Decatur, Georgia

Marissa Galván-Valle, Louisville, Kentucky

Kathryn Schneider Halliburton, Colorado Springs, Colorado

L’Anni Hill, Decatur, Georgia

Elizabeth C. Knowlton, Atlanta, Georgia

Franklin E. Lewis, Chester, West Virginia

Elizabeth H. Shannon, St. Petersburg, Florida

Margaret LaMotte Torrence, Asheville, North Carolina

The generosity of many people has helped bring this work to fruition. David Maxwell, executive editor of Westminster John Knox Press, has provided gentle guidance, shown great wisdom, and shared his seemingly boundless good humor. David Dobson, editorial director of WJK, has offered constant support and encouragement. Columbia Theological Seminary provided meeting space, hospitality, and encouragement for the project.

No words are sufficient to describe the depth of God’s grace or beautiful enough to address to the creator of the cosmos. We offer these words with the prayer that they might be useful to the church in enabling worshiping communities to stammer forth their thanks and praise.

Kimberly Bracken Long

   SEASON AFTER PENTECOST   

Trinity Sunday

OPENING WORDS / CALL TO WORSHIP

we behold in the splendor of creation

your majesty and our responsibility.

O Holy Trinity, One God in Three Persons,

we behold in the face of Jesus Christ

your divinity and our humanity.

O Holy Trinity, One God in Three Persons,

we behold in the Spirit of truth

your glory and our calling.

Bound to you forever, we will ever praise your name!

[or]

In the beginning, when God drew a circle on

Wisdom was there rejoicing, delighting

in the human race.

In the beginning was the Word, with God,

and the Word was God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us,

full of grace and truth.

In every time and place, God’s love is poured into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Blessed are you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!*

CALL TO CONFESSION

we are given access to the grace of God.

Standing in that grace,

we now confess our sins before God,

seeking forgiveness and peace.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

O Lord, our Sovereign,

how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Yet we put aside your majesty,

seeking our own power and gain.

We set aside our responsibility for the earth

entrusted to our care.

By both carelessness and design,

we pollute air, land, and waters.

In our greed, we use more resources than we rightly need.

We confess that we do not fully comprehend the damage

we have done

to the birds of the air, the creatures of the sea,

and the animals that live in forests and fields.

Forgive us, we pray.

Let your majesty fill our senses,

and pervade our actions,

that we may become better stewards of creation.

Call us, in every infant’s cry,

to care for one another so that all your people flourish.

In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

[or]

Triune God,

within your own life there is mutuality, equality,

and unity in diversity.

Though we are made in your image,

we confess that we distort the triune life.

Instead of seeking mutual welfare and the common good,

we seek our own gain.

Instead of living in equality, justice, and respect,

we construct systems that are unjust.

We devise ways to elevate ourselves over others,

and disrespectful thoughts, words, and actions

still surface in us.

We allow differences to divide us and lead to brokenness.

Holy God, forgive us.

Restore in us, and in our life together,

the divine image you intend.

Make us tender in mutuality.

Make us generous in equality.

Make us grateful in diversity.

We pray to be one with you and one another,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

DECLARATION OF FORGIVENESS

Because God’s love has been poured into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit,

we are set free to love God and neighbor,

and to work for the reconciliation of the world.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God!

PRAYER OF THE DAY

O God,

we honor this day

the majesty and the mystery

of your name.

You are both infinite and intimate,

known and unknowable,

transcendent and transparent.

In love, you have made us your own,

and invite us to join in your divine dance.

We will never rest until we rest in you,

Blessed Trinity,

one God forever and ever.

Amen.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

you still have many things to say to us.

Speak, and we will try to bear them.

By your Word,

may the Spirit guide us into all truth,

that our lives may glorify you.

Amen.

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION

[optional response to each intercession:]

God, in your wisdom, hear our prayer.

yet we call on you again and again

for you alone are God.

We cannot live apart from you,

for you have called us into your triune life.

Your steadfast love surrounds us all our days.

Wherever we may be—

on a high mountain or a path in a shadowed valley,

at a crossroads on our journey,

outside the gates of welcome or in some inner circle—

you call to us,

delighting in the human race.

We come before you in thanksgiving

for all the gifts you have given that delight us so:

for the beauty of this season;

for the lives of those who bless us beyond their knowing;

for this community of faith by which we are nurtured and challenged;

for opportunities to serve you by serving others;

for goals accomplished;

and for the gift of life granted yet again today.

We come before you humbly and hopeful in need:

for those we know who are suffering today

because of illness in mind, body, or spirit;

for those trying to make a difficult decision;

for those grieving a loss, an ending, a dream deferred.

We pray for healing and strength in every broken place of our lives.

We long for the hope you alone can give—

hope that does not disappoint us

but rolls away stones of death and despair.

We pray for those whose livelihood is precarious,

for those who live at the edge of poverty’s precipice,

and for those who live in temporary shelter and tenuous provision.

In the public square and in the privacy of our conscience,

help us find the will and the way toward a common good.

We come before you earnestly and urgently for this world in turmoil:

for the chaos loose in the natural world—

drought and floods, earthquakes and tornadoes—

heal the earth, we pray.

May those who are starving, thirsty,

or left in destruction’s debris be restored.

We pray for the turmoil we cause

through war and violence, hatred and prejudice,

by our indifference and by our calculation.

Bring an end to our warring ways,

until civilians and soldiers live in safety and peace.

Root out of our hearts the seeds of bigotry and narrow-mindedness.

Stir us from apathy, increase in us empathy

that we may love as you love.

Holy God,

we have done so much to disrupt, disengage,

and even destroy what you have created and called good.

Still you are determined to delight in the human race.

So, make us delight-full.

Help us to delight in you by living and playing in ways that please you.

Help us to delight in neighbors near and far

by living and playing in ways that restore true communion.

Make us delightful all our days

until we greet with joy the kingdom you are bringing.

In Christ Jesus we pray. Amen.

INVITATION TO THE OFFERING

Out of the abundance of God’s own life,

we have received the abundance of God’s creation, God’s word,

and God’s love.

Why, then, should we live as though we are threatened with scarcity?

Let us return to God a portion of all that we have been given,

with joyous and glad abandon.

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING/DEDICATION

Holy God, you have poured out so much for us—

the beauty of the world,

the care of family and friends,

meaningful labor,

and the gift of the church.

We give you thanks for these and many other gifts.

Most especially,

we thank you for pouring your love

into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

Through these offerings,

may your love spill over in glad abundance

that brings relief, renewal, and hope to those in need.

In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

CHARGE

Go out this day

participating in the life of the triune God—

by honoring mutuality,

living in equality and justice,

and celebrating the amazing diversity

by which our communion is enriched.

[or]

in patient endurance,

and stand firm in the hope that comes from God,

that others may see the glory of God

made known in Jesus Christ our Lord.

BLESSING

and may the love of God fill your heart

so that you may find hope

in every circumstance of this life,

and give glory to God.

Amen.

Questions for Reflection

Trinity Sunday is not so much a day for explanations as it is a day for reflection on the majesty and mystery of the fullness of God: God as Creator, Lawgiver, the One who performs mighty acts; God as Messiah and Lord, Savior, Liberator, known to us in Jesus Christ; God as Holy Spirit, Wind and Flame, Advocate, Comforter. How does thinking of God in this Trinitarian way inform, even increase, your understanding of God? Do you experience God, or relate more easily to God, in one of the three Persons of God more than the other two? What causes you to relate to God more closely in this way?

Household Prayer: Morning

Creator God, I wake this morning to the beauty of the world

as though it were the first morning of creation.

As the light of the sun rises on all that you have made,

I pray that my spirit may rise also.

Help me to be ready to greet you

however and in whomever you make yourself known to me today.

Help me to pause in moments of this day

to glimpse the beauty you have made,

offered as gift and sign of your abiding